How Could I Forget?
by meridianjackson
Summary: Owen and Cristina are happy together when a friend from Owen's before shows up and changes everything.
1. Storm is Coming, But I Don't Mind

"So we're going to Joe's with Meredith and Derek tonight? "

Cristina turned towards him and smiled, "Yea, I'll meet you there when I get off". Her pager goes off and she looks at it. "It's a 911 in the pit" she told Owen, "you coming?"

Owen looked towards the front doors of the hospital at the rain that was beginning to fall and slowly shook his head, "I'll catch up with you, I feel like something is about to happen, I think it should stay here."

Cristina shrugged, by now she was used to Owen's weird feelings, turned and went on her way to the pit.

Owen stared at the doors for a minute then sighed and turned away starting after Cristina, but he caught something out of the corner of his eye.

A girl outside who seemed to be dragging herself toward the hospital doors, she hadn't fallen down yet but she was on the verge of it. He rushed outside and called out to the girl, that he was a doctor and could help her. His vision was blurred because the rain was really coming down now and he could barely make out the teenagers face through the water, he reached her and started to speak when he caught sight of her face, she turned toward him and smiled lightly before collapsing into his arms, before she passed out she managed to whisper

"Owen? What the hell are you doing here?"

Owen's head was spinning and he had so many questions but there was no time for that, instead he did what he was trained to do asses and triage. He swept the girls into his arms easily; she couldn't have weight more than 100 pounds and ran toward the hospital doors yelling orders as he did so.

"NURSE GET ME A BED"

Within seconds doctors and nurses were surrounding the girl and wheeling her to one of the empty ER beds. The Chief happened to be standing at the nurse's station where Owen had been seconds before and took charge while Owen stood in shock.

"Alright people what do we know about this girl?" the Chief said

Everyone looked at each other until Owen finally spoke up,

"Her name is Peyton" he said quietly

The chief turned to Owen with a shocked look on his face

"You know this girl?"

"Yes, Owen said," she is a friend…she was a friend of mine"

By now Meredith Grey had been paged and was asking for orders.

Owen snapped out of his shock and started ordering people around, "

alright we've got a … he quickly counted the years in his head, 16 year old female, about one hundred pounds with severe trauma to the head, it looks like a puncture wound in her abdomen, and possibly broken ribs, which probably means internal bleeding ."

"Grey! Page Torres and Sheppard, and get Peyton a CT and MRI stat, we need to get a better look at what is inside"

Peyton started to wake up then and Owen rushed to her side as her eyes fluttered open and she attempted to sit up.

"Stop it" Owen told her sternly," you need to rest; you have a lot of injuries"

Peyton rolled her eyes, and spoke quietly, "same old Owen, thinking he can boss me around", she started to cough violently but continued to talk, "who are you my dad?"

Owen just shook his head and Peyton laughed, "And you never answered my earlier question, what the hell are you doing here?" She tried to look around.

What did I accidentally walk to Iraq?

"You need your rest Peyton" Owen said, rubbing his temples," They're going to take you for some tests now"

She got serious then," Seriously Owen what are you doing back? Did you bring James, and Nate? Do you work here now?

Owen didn't answer any questions and avoided the curious stares he got from the other doctors in the room.

"Grey", he said quietly, "I'll be back in about 10 minutes, she is going to need surgery for sure, you can scrub in, also get the information from the patient and fill out her chart"

He glanced at Peyton's angry expression."As best you can"


	2. Unanswered Questions

Meredith was left with Peyton in her room trying to get information from her but Peyton was being less than cooperative and kept tying and retying her long curly dark hair into a bun.

Meredith was trying though, "blood type?"

Peyton only snorted, "Do a blood test Dr. Grey, and I'm sure you can figure that out"

"Last name?"

"Date of birth"

"Parents names?"

With this question, Peyton shifted herself on the bed so she was no longer facing Meredith.

"At least tell me your race/ethnicity?" Meredith begged, "Please I need to have something to give Owen"

Owen was watching from the door, "Are you giving Dr. Grey a hard time Peyton?

He looked at the chart, and then took it from Meredith.

"Let me see that… God it's been a while since I've had to do this"

"Last name …Peyton Doe, you call yourself right?"

Peyton turned back so that she was facing Owen "you remembered?"

He gave her a quick smile and continue filling out the chart

"April 4th right... 1993?" "Right …you're sixteen"

"Parents names? You never told me"

"Race and Ethnicity? Half Italian and half…what was it, Chippewa Indian? "

"Cherokee," she said before she could stop herself

"Right" he smiled

She turned to Dr. Grey, "Hey, sorry for giving you a hard time, but could you give Owen and I a minute?"

"Sure", Meredith said as she walked out of the room

As soon as she left Owen, ran over to Peyton and gave her a tight hug, "Where the hell you been kid? I've been scouring the streets of Seattle for you."

"There's your mistake she said hugging him back, I've been a California girl for a while, like my tan?"

"Yeah, Owen replied, "it goes well with your broken ribs, head trauma and internal bleeding"

She sighed "shut up Owen, it's none of your business"

"Actually it is my business since you're in my hospital, in my trauma wing and I'm your doctor" Owen said his frown deepening

"Same old Owen, always worrying, I'm a big girl, I can take care of myself."

He looked doubtful

"Hey Owen?"

He raised his eyebrows

"Where are James and Nate and the other guys? Maybe you could call them? It's been a while since I've seen them, are they on leave with you?"

Owen ignored the questions and moved to sit on the bed

"I missed you kid"

"I missed you Owen, you were gone a long time" "Why didn't you come back for me, I know you couldn't have left Iraq but if you were back…Why? Did you forget about me?"

Owen pulled away and held her by her shoulders

"How could I? How could I forget?

He didn't see Meredith Grey at the window witnessing a 35 year old man hugging a 16 year old girl and she ran to tell Cristina.


	3. What I'm About to Tell You

Cristina found Owen shortly after Peyton had been taken into surgery.

He was sitting outside the OR doors and she sat on the ground next to him.

"So you're into 16 year olds now?" she said bluntly

"What?" he looked up, his thought of worrying about Peyton broken," what are you talking about?"

"Your little friend Peyton!" "Meredith told me everything," Cristina blurted out

"Everything huh? I'm sure she knows the whole story…" Owen's look softened

"Peyton's not… Cristina, she's half my age we're... well we used to be friends sort of…" Owen was trying to look for a way to explain his and Peyton's relationship, but he found that he couldn't.

"I looked out for her, helped her when she needed it, and took care of her when she got hurt, that is until I left for Iraq"

Owen shook his head in disbelief

"Then she, she ends up here five years later, I haven't see in her in five years… so much has happened since them, it feels like a lifetime."

Cristina looked at him and was surprised to see that he was smiling; she nudged him with her shoulder

"What are you so happy about?"

Owen leaned his head back against the wall," I remember the first day I met her"

His eyes suddenly got sad and he turned toward Cristina," she was just a kid Cristina, maybe 11, or 12, she shouldn't have had to deal with anything that wasn't ponies and Barbie dolls, but when I met her, she was practically middle aged because of the way her life was going."

"Tell me about her" Cristina said suddenly," tell me everything" she moved closer and led his head into her lap as he began to talk.

"We met at Green Lake Park, my family used to live around there and I was visiting my mom, Beth and I were still together then and we went over for dinner. It was getting late, and I decided to take a walk to get some air and I ended up there. She was sitting in a bench looking in a mirror, clearly crying and doing something to her face, I went in closer and asked if she was okay and she promptly responded with, "screw you creepo"

Cristina laughed and though that maybe she and Peyton had more in common than she had realized.

Owen smiled up and her and continued,

"When I moved in closer, I was able to see what she was doing; she was stitching up her own face!"

" It was crazy, I mean, imagine this 11 year old girl crying her eyes out, no anesthesia and stitching up her own face. I told her I was a doctor and could help but she said no she was fine and I should just go mind my own business. "

He closed his eyes then and Cristina saw a hint of a smile creep on his face.

"I sat down next to her, I don't know why I did, but something told me to and I asked her how she got those injuries, and she said, I quote"

"Would you believe me if I said I fell down some stairs?"

"I laughed and shook my head and she said, Fine, well let's just say I fell up them."

"She told me her name was Peyton and wouldn't tell me her parent's names or where she lived. I asked her to come back to my mom's house with me because she looked hungry and my mom loved taking in strays, and so I could examine her cuts in the light because she was a little tight with the stitches. "

Cristina started to lightly stroke Owen's hair

"We walked back to my mom's house together and got her some food and I re-stitched her. It turns out she swiped the supplies from Seattle Grace and took the supplies she needed from there on a regular basis."

"She wouldn't tell me anything else about her and she left in a hurry. The next day though, she was sitting on my porch at 8 am, and when I came outside to see what she had to say, she told me that she was bored and had nothing better to do than visit me, and that since I had helped her, I was the closest thing to a friend she'd ever had, so I was going to get the pleasure of her company for the day."

"We've been friends ever since, and she would come by the house every day, some days with new injuries and I would always grill her as to how she was getting them, but she would never tell me." So I would just fix her up, and keep her with me as long as I could, to protect her from whatever was harming her"

"I used to tell her everything, then when I joined the military, she was so mad, she didn't talk to me for a week, she just kept asking me why I was leaving her alone, and wasn't she a good enough friend, that if she asked me to stay, I would do it."

"I couldn't though, and on the morning of my flight she somehow made it to the the airport with a bag in her hand and told me if I was going to Iraq to be a doctor, so was she."

"She claimed that she was at least half a doctor, because she had to diagnose and treat the injures she'd acquired over the years, and she said that if they would let me in to the army, there was no reason why they wouldn't welcome her with open arms."

I don't know why I left… she needed me to protect her, her bruises were getting worse and I noticed, I tried to stop myself from it, but I saw, I should have stayed and helped her and now…now she's in OR 3 and I'm on the outside, helpless, telling her story like she's already gone"

He looked up at Cristina whose eyes were closed, deep in thought.

"How did she get the bruises?" Cristina asked quietly.

"She never told me, but I'm pretty sure it was her mom."

"She knew everything about me, but all I knew about her, were the things that needed to go on her chart, blood type, birthday, ethnicity, past injuries, she never even told me her last name."

He chuckled, "she would claim her name was Peyton Doe, she told me that Jane was a sucky name, but the Doe part wasn't so bad, and it stuck, whenever I would help her at the hospital, that's the name we would write on the paperwork…Peyton Doe."

The OR doors suddenly opened and Callie Torres and Derek Sheppard stepped out holding their scrub caps in their hands.

Owen and Cristina stood quickly and the smile that was on Owen's face disappeared, worry replacing it.

"How is she?" "How did the surgery go?"


	4. People Always Leave

**Hi guys, sorry it took so long to update, but I'm back and I hope you continue to read the story and review it!!**

Dr. Sheppard spoke first, "She's stable, but her skull sustained a lot of trauma and the CT showed she had small aneurysms, which bleed a little, and we had to give her a transfusion, but she didn't reject the blood and should recover nicely"

Torres jumped in, "her ribs are fine, she had 3 broken though, which will take a while to heal, and the internal bleeding was her liver which had a tear, but we were able to repair that without too much bleeding , she should be awake in a couple of hours, you can see her then."

Owen's pager went off and he checked it, and then gave Cristina a quick kiss on the cheek, "Thanks for listening, I've got another patient that needs surgery, can you check on Peyton when she wakes up?"

His eyes were so bright and Cristina was so happy to see him happy that she nodded in agreement without thinking, and Owen rushed away to scrub in.

_A few hours later_

Cristina paced outside Peyton's room, not sure if she should go in and check on her like she promised Owen…this wasn't like her, normally she would have been able to barge in there, look at the chart and leave, no strings no emotions, but this was Owen…this was Owen's…whatever Peyton was to him, she knew he was something to him, and she couldn't screw whatever they had up.

She opened the door slowly, and was surprised when Peyton turned toward the sound and said "hey"

"Hi um" Cristina started, "I'm um Cristina, Owen sent me to check on you"

"Riiiiight" Peyton smiled.

She really was a beautiful girl, Cristina noted.

Her skin was tan, the color of coffee that has been loaded up with cream and had golden flecks in it, probably from her time in California, her long dark curls cascaded down her back and she had eyes the color of cinnamon that were surrounded by the darkest, longest eyelashes Cristina had ever seen.

The girls pink lips curled in to a smile

"I'm Peyton, by the way, I don't believe we've had the pleasure of meeting", she offered her hand and Cristina noticed the old cuts and burns going down the length of her arms.

They shook and then Cristina blurted out "What happened to you?"

Peyton smiled, sadly this time, then looked into Cristina eyes and held the gaze, "I fell up some stairs"

Cristina smiled faintly then nodded and took a seat by the bed

" So uh, Owen got called in to surgery, and he should be here soon; I just wanted to make sure that you were doing okay"

"Yea..Sure I'm fine"

After a moment of uncomfortable silence, Peyton broke the ice

"So you're the girlfriend right?"

Cristina was shocked, "Owen told you?"

Peyton shook her head, "no haha, I picked up on it, Owen hasn't looked this happy in… well he was happy, until I showed up."

"I knew I should have just walked to Mercy West, but my stomach was killing me," she winked at Cristina

Cristina snorted, "Yea that's what internal bleeding will do to you"

Peyton shook her head, "I think…I think that we are going to be friends Cristina, we're a lot alike you and me, I can tell already."

Cristina smiled, pleased to be liked so much by Owen's friend.

They settled into silence again

Cristina broke it this time "so Owen told me how you guys met, quite the story huh?"

"Yea, if he hadn't come to the park that night, I don't know where I would be, Owen is a great guy" Peyton said

"Yeah he's amazing, but weren't your parents worried about where you were?" "You were only eleven right?"

Cristina hoped she hadn't crossed the line, but her curiosity had gotten the best of her and she had to ask.

"She must have been concerned", she finished, looking at Peyton to read her reaction

"My mother?" Peyton laughed, "My mother doesn't produce enough concern for herself, to have any left over for me"

She sat up suddenly changing the subject

"Hey I asked Owen earlier, but do you know if he called James and Nate and the guys? They're the guys he went over with , and I haven't seen them in like forever, maybe he talks about them… and you know where they live?" she asked hopefully.

"I'd really like to see them; maybe, could you get the numbers from Owen and call them?"

Cristina stared at her for a long time," Didn't Owen tell you?"

She continued, "Everyone in Owen's platoon was killed…except for him"

"What?" Peyton said.

"I'm so sorry, but they're gone, Owen didn't tell you?"  
Peyton blinked back tears and whispered something that she didn't think Cristina could hear, but she did

"People always leave"


	5. I've Done This Before

Peyton sniffed then sat up more in her bed

"I haven't cried since…well since I called Owen 2 years ago in Iraq"

Cristina leaned forward interested in anything Peyton could tell her about Owen.

"It was the first time I talked to him since he had been over there and I was so excited to finally hear his voice, but as soon as I got on the phone I knew something was wrong, he didn't even say hello I just knew it was him and he was totally silent for about 5 minutes then he started breathing really heavily and the phone was breaking up, he was taking in these huge gulping breaths like a fish searching for water, except, except he never found it, he was taking huge gulping breaths , just, just like a fish and he just kept trying, like, like if he kept doing it, if he just kept breathing everything would be alright. That's what I used to tell him, that this world was going to keep sucking and the only thing we could do, was to keep breathing."

"He was never a crier, Owen, I don't think I've ever seen him cry, but that night, that's the night he lost it. He lost his belief that the world would eventually…that the world would get better. That all the fighting and all the dying and all the pain that everyone was going through, that it all be okay because, because soon it would stop, it would stop and everyone and everything that suffered would be alright. He always believed it, I never did. I knew better, I knew it would never stop."

Cristina nodded once as Peyton continued.

"He kept breathing heavily for a while then, then he started to tell me what happened. Now you know what Owen did over there, he basically came in after the enemy was gone and picked up all the pieces all the broken soldiers, but sometimes he had to work under fire because if they waited until they retreated, too many of the guys wouldn't have made it. Owen tells me that he and Nate, his best friend also a trauma surgeon were trying to airlift these 2 brothers who had gunshot wounds to the chest and abdomen and were bleeding out fast. He said that something was wrong with the helicopter and they were stuck waiting for another on to come get them. Owen was a doctor, so they didn't arm him with everything a soldier usually had, they just gave him a gun just in case he needed it. So he said while they were waiting, he could hear the shots getting closer and closer to them. Out of the corner of his eye, he said he saw this guy aiming a gun at Nate from behind a sand pit and without thinking, he just pulled out the gun they gave him, and shot him, just… shot him, quick and dirty, no time to think it through, it was just instinct for him. He says after that was the worst feeling he had ever had, he kept saying that he couldn't get the guys face out of his head and what if he had a family and what were they were doing when they got the call, and I didn't know what to do so, I started crying, we sat there for three hours, me in a phone booth in downtown LA and him at his military base, just crying and trying to keep breathing, not saying anything. Before we hung up, because I ran out of quarters, he said that he wished he could come home and that he was sorry if this world had already broken my heart. That was the last time I talked to Owen until today."

"I thought he was dead you know? I thought since he hadn't come looking for me by now he was dead, so I guess I stopped breathing."

There was a knock at the door and Owen entered a moment later.

"Peyton, Cristina…Hi" Owen stated awkwardly

Peyton snorted," You always knew how to make an entrance"

Owen smiled, "So have you two gotten to know each other?"

"ohh yes" Peyton said. "I like her, she's better than Beth; she was always too bright and shiny, peppy even, I mean in this world? Who needs pep?

"How did you…?" Owen said because he knew Cristina wasn't the type to tell anyone unless they asked.

"Owen, Owen did you think you could hide anything from me? This is me remember? I can still read you like a book."

Cristina laughed, "He is very predictable"

"I am not!" Owen exclaimed

"See, I knew you would say that" Peyton said with a shake of her head. "Yepp predictable"

Owen moved closer to her bed shaking his head. "You, young lady need to get some rest, you just had a major surgery…."

He was cut off Peyton

"And my body has sustained massive amounts of trauma; I need to sleep to re-energize myself so I am ready for my difficult recovery process"

"I've done this before Dr. Hunt"

"You've done this before" he repeated.

**How did you like it??? Too over the top? Please leave a review!!!!!!**


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